Working at Home 101: How to Manage Your Time

It is definitely a wonderful opportunity to be your own boss, set your own hours, and have true independence by working at home. But can you really handle it? For those of us who work at home, it is actually much easier than it seems, and you surprisingly don’t miss nagging coworkers interrupting you to chat about their weekend. Imagine that…

Still, there are some important tips to keep in mind to help you not only stay on task but maintain your sanity:

• Create your own work space. If you are working at home with children around, you need to have a separate home office that is respected by your family. Make sure that no other household items get shuffled into your office and disturb your space, and keep your office off-limits from your children so that your work does not get tampered with or lost. This will help establish boundaries and respect for your space to preserve your work.
  
• Stick to regular hours. If you worry about being lazy and waking up late when you work at home, think again because it is quite the opposite. You will find yourself obsessively waking up at 6 AM to finish a project and potentially working until 12 hours later. You need to have respect for yourself by setting normal working hours that you stick to since you are your own boss. This will preserve your sanity and allow you to work better on all of your projects as you maintain standard working hours.
• Stick to your morning routine. Yes, you may be tempted to not shower and stay in pajamas all day, but it helps to have breakfast, exercise, take a shower, and get dressed in your regular clothing to prepare you for your day of work ahead.
• Eliminate distractions. It is a must to turn off your regular home telephone when you need to work, and make sure to set your cell phone on vibrate during that timeframe. Just as you would in a regular office, deal with all personal matters on your breaks, lunch, and after work.
• Don’t give up if you are having a difficult day. There may be times when you didn’t get enough sleep, don’t feel productive, or just feel like throwing in the towel. It is still important to continue to work to get the wheels rolling, instead of giving up because you “just weren’t feeling it”.
• Always take breaks. In a regular office, you are often given a customary coffee break in the morning and afternoon, so give yourself the same allowances at home. If you sit and stare at your computer for hours on end without a break, you probably won’t be productive anyway, so make sure that you have some downtime in your daily work schedule!

Bethany Ramos works at home as a professional freelance writer and co-owns The Coffee Bump. For a great selection of coffee makers commercial, check out Bethany Ramos’ website today!